Daily Delight: Four Calling (Colly?) Birds

On the fourth day of Christmas Daily Delights, I give to thee…FOUR CALLING BIRDS! (Also: THREE FRENCH HENS, TWO TURTLE DOVES AND A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREEEE!) Birds, birds and more birds! I don’t think I ever noticed how obsessed this song is with all things avian. Was that some kind of fad back in the day? I mean, didn’t they have any jewelry then? Forget a pear tree! How about a pear-cut diamond? But, I digress.

Photo: Kana Okada/Country Living

There’s some head-scratching over this lyric, because some people sing “four calling birds” though it’s believed that it’s a “phonetic misunderstanding” of the phrase “four colly birds” — colly birds being a term for blackbirds in old-timey England. You learn something new every day on this blog, I tell ya. So, I think four of these pie birds would be a perfect gift on all fronts. They’re adorable, affordable, reference another rhyme (“four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie”) and with their mouths open, they even look like they’re “calling” if you prefer that interpretation. That’s actually a practical feature for fruit pies with pastry tops; the mouths act like a steam vent so that the pie juices don’t boil over. The birds featured in this Country Living snap are vintage, but you can pretty up your pie with a modern option, like this bird from Amazon.com.

[...] Daily Delights, I give to thee…FIIIIIIVVVEEEEE GOOLLLDEENNNNN RIIIIINNNGSSSS!!!!! (And: FOUR CALLING BIRDS, THREE FRENCH HENS, TWO TURTLE DOVES AND A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREEEEE!) This is my very favorite [...]

[...] SWANS-A-SWIMMING! (And: SIX GEESE-A-LAYING, FIIIIIIVVVEEEEE GOOLLLDEENNNNN RIIIIINNNGSSSS, FOUR CALLING BIRDS, THREE FRENCH HENS, TWO TURTLE DOVES AND A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR [...]

Briana MowreyBriana is a writer and senior editor for HGTV.com. Her self-described design style is "mid-century modern magpie." She lives in a Brooklyn apartment with her husband, their spoiled dachshund, Chauncey,...